Trump calls for Supreme Court intervention in deportation case

WASHINGTON - Top leaders of President Donald Trump’s administration are debating whether to invoke a "state secrets privilege" in response to a judge’s questions about deportation flights carrying Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador, a Justice Department official informed the judge on Friday ahead of a hearing.

What we know:

D.C. District Court Chief Judge Jeb Boasberg appears to be moving toward holding the Trump administration in contempt after issuing an order Thursday for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to explain why it didn’t comply with his court order to turn deportation planes around.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a court filing Friday that there are "ongoing Cabinet-level discussions" about Boasberg’s demand for more information. The district judge ordered the Trump administration to either provide more details about the flights or assert a claim that disclosing the information would harm "state secrets."

Government lawyers filed Blanche’s sworn statement hours before the judge was scheduled to hold a hearing for the case on Friday in Washington.

The backstory:

This all stems from Trump’s efforts to deport members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador under a 200-year-old law that grants wartime powers to the president to detain and deport individuals from enemy countries. 

There is debate over whether the law applies the way Trump is using it, prompting Boasberg to order a pause on deportations, including turning planes around that were en route to El Salvador with deported individuals.

Hours later, after the planes landed in El Salvador, instead of returning as ordered, the president of El Salvador tweeted a headline about Boasberg’s order, saying, "Oopsie, too late."

Boasberg is now seeking clarification from DOJ on whether it violated his order, requesting more information about the planes. DOJ argues that the judge is overstepping his authority on national security matters. Following calls from several Trump affiliates for Boasberg’s impeachment, Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public statement asserting that impeachment is not the solution.

The other side:

In a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform, Trump took aim at "Radical Left Judges" for imposing injunctions on some of his most controversial moves.

"Unlawful Nationwide Injunctions by Radical Left Judges could very well lead to the destruction of our Country!" he wrote. "These people are Lunatics, who do not care, even a little bit, about the repercussions from their very dangerous and incorrect Decisions and Rulings."

He urged the high court and Chief Justice John Roberts to address the matter. 

"If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble!" he wrote. 

Trump said Boasberg was "doing everything in his power" to usurp the presidency. 

"He is a local, unknown Judge, a Grandstander, looking for publicity, and it cannot be for any other reason, because his "Rulings" are so ridiculous, and inept," Trump wrote. "SAVE AMERICA!"

Big picture view:

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has rejected calls for impeaching federal judges.

"For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision," Roberts said in a rare statement. "The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose."

Just 15 judges have been impeached in the nation’s history, according to the U.S. courts governing body, and just eight have been removed.

The last judicial impeachment was in 2010. G. Thomas Porteous Jr. of New Orleans was impeached on charges he accepted bribes and then lied about it. He was convicted by the Senate and removed from office in December 2010.

Calls to impeach judges have been rising as Trump’s sweeping agenda faces pushback in the courts, and at least two members of Congress have said online they plan to introduce articles of impeachment against Boasberg. House Republicans already have filed articles of impeachment against two other judges, Amir Ali and Paul Engelmayer, over rulings they’ve made in Trump-related lawsuits.